April 19, 2017

“We actually don't want to get our patients hooked on treats like these. We're pushing for more healthy snacks and removing the "desserts" almost entirely. We are pushing berries, apples, and grain free chips or veggies with mashed avocado."

I’m not aiming to slam doctors here. I have yet to meet a doc who wants the worst for their patients.

Still, I’ve met plenty of doctors who don’t know the first thing about healthy eating, and who assume that the best diet is a perfect(and unrealistic) diet.No sugars, no fats, no animal protein, no this, that, or the other.

They forget that they’re talking to real people who want to have real food, enjoy their dinner, and God forbid, have a dessert at the end of a meal.

From my perspective, health professionals who prescribe super restrictive diets are OFTEN (not always) unintentionally setting their patients up to cheat, fail, feel like losers, and ratchet up their stress levels.That’s not healthy!

Let me walk you through some basic critical thinking as it applies to the above quote:

Second, you can’t show me grain free chips that don’t have significant preservatives in them and aren’t high carb.I know, I’ve looked.

Any food that is going to last at room temperature in a bag for months is no longer REAL food.It might taste amazing, but it’s damn near guaranteed to twist your guts.And don’t tell me your patients are going to dehydrate their own veggie chips for the rest of their life; I don’t need to be a psychologist to tell you that’s flat out delusional.

I’ll also tell you that I actually read the ingredients, and MOST chips out there have fucking sugar as one of their ingredients.C’mon!

People, it ain't the dessert that's the problem, it's the lack of a realistic approach to enjoying food, the reliance on constant snacking to feed your (brain, not actual) hunger, and the idiocy of thinking that abstinence is a long term solution.

You CAN be healthy and enjoy all your meals, but it WILL take work and using your own brain to assess what is going to be successful for you.

Don’t herd people into thinking that food can’t be fun, or they can never have dessert, or that labels like gluten free or paleo or vegan or dairy free are indicators of absolute value.

Eat real food.Have a salad.Grill a steak.Hell, throw on the occasional potato if you’re working out a bunch and hard.At the end of it, learn how to enjoy dessert.